Polls: Dean holds onto leads in Iowa, N.H.

Howard Dean holds a slight lead in Iowa with just a week to go before the state’s Democratic presidential caucuses and is maintaining his dominant position in New Hampshire, campaign polls out Saturday found.

In Iowa, the former Vermont governor was at 30 percent, with Dick Gephardt at 23 percent and John Kerry at 18 percent, according to the Los Angeles Times poll of likely Iowa caucus goers. John Edwards, a North Carolina senator, was the only other candidate in double digits, at 11 percent.

Dean does well among voters with higher incomes and among men in an Iowa electorate that remains fluid. Almost one in 10 were undecided, and four in 10 said they could still change their mind.

Health care was the top issue cited for supporting a candidate, and the poll found a strong sense of frustration that Democrats in Washington haven’t stood up to President Bush, with six in 10 saying that was a concern. Those voters leaned heavily toward Dean.

The poll of 640 likely caucus goers was taken Jan. 5-8 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It was taken before Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin endorsed Dean and before a controversy erupted over Dean comments in 2000 about the nature of national caucuses — that they are dominated by special-interest groups.

Wesley Clark, the retired general who is not competing in Iowa, was at 4 percent in Iowa, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich at 3 percent, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman at 2 percent. Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton had less than 1 percent each.

A New Hampshire poll showed Dean holding a lead of about 20 points over his closest competitors. The poll done for the Concord Monitor by Research 2000 found Dean with the support of 34 percent, with Clark at 14 percent and Kerry at 13 percent. Others were in single digits.

The poll of 405 likely voters in the New Hampshire primary was taken Jan. 6-8 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.